Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Your Grandfather Had Game

Or, depending on your age, perhaps your great-grandfather...
Much of what circulates through the Internet as regards 'Game' is pretty much what our grandfathers and great-grandfathers did without a second thought. Consider:

Your grandfather took his dates, and probably your grandmother, dancing frequently, in couples dancing. What's more, he pretty much always led. Ask a woman of that generation---very frequently a widow due to different life expectancies, about her husband and she'll often mention dancing.
Your grandfather swaggered a lot more than men of this generation do.
By current standards, he was a serious sexist, probably a believer in complementarianism rather than equalitarianism.
All of these things made him more attractive to women.
It's true that he didn't have a media constantly working at eroding his status versus women and minorities and denigrating traditionally male activities.
It is also true that he didn't have the second sigma working to undermine his economic power and ability to have a stay at home wife and mother of his children through importing a new people and increasing the sheepskin credentialism to the degree we now have.
It is further true that he didn't have the shadow of no-fault divorce in his early married years---back in those days divorcing was VERY low status.
Judging by their TFR, the men of his generation had no lack of sexual access during marriage.

In many senses, Game is a profoundly reactionary thing---an attempt to reconstruct something that our ancestors took for granted.